The Hittite Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, or CHD as we call it, is a comprehensive, bilingual Hittite-English dictionary. The CHD is not just a list of words and their meanings, but rather a lexicon of Hittite society that reflects its ideas and material world in all its aspects. A good dictionary is like an encyclopedia reflecting a culture through its lexicon. Published letter by letter, the CHD is a long-term project and the result of a painstaking process of cultural, historical, and lexical investigation. The CHD is the only such project in the English-speaking world. The CHD is published in printed form and in electronic form as the eCHD, which also has Turkish meanings added to the English.
The CHD is a comprehensive dictionary, covering the entire lexicon known from published texts. Because Hittite is no longer a living language, the CHD is a passive dictionary, that is, it is meant to be used in translating and interpreting the source language (Hittite) into the target language (English) only. In such a field with native speakers no longer available, a top-quality dictionary is the most important tool of every philologist and an indispensable work of reference for historians and all others professionally involved in the study of the ancient Near East.
